11 Things You Might Have Forgotten Were Just As Big In The '90s As They Are Now

Just because the '90s are over, it doesn't mean the '90s are over, if you know what I mean. Sure, the decade has passed us in time, but there's so much we still do now that we did back then. And a lot of it isn't even intentional, it's just that trends have a way of recycling themselves, and some things are, you know, just timeless. Kids today might not even realize it, but some cultural things that they've defined their formative years on were just as big in the '90s as they are now. If not bigger. We'll always be influenced by the '90s, even if we don't know it.

You might have noticed a lot of '90s fashion trends that are having a moment again now, but it's not just '90s fashions that are popular now. Other cultural trends in literature, television, and life, are weirdly, and non-tangentially, huge now too. Like SoulCycle, which we didn't call SoulCycle in the '90s, but we definitely had spin. And Edward Cullen, who is basically just a less good Angel. Wait, what am I saying: he's the worst possible version of Angel. Here are 11 things you might have forgotten were just as big in the '90s as they are now.

1. Vampires

You think Twilight invented the vampire trend? WRONG! (I mean, vampires have been around in pop culture since Nosferatu, but still...) The '90s were full of vampires. And vampire culture was just as big as it was when True Blood first came out, thanks to shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and movies like Interview With A Vampire.

2. Chokers

Chokers are 2016's hottest accessory, but they were 1996's hottest accessory too. Before Gigi and RiRi were wearing them, Drew Barrymore and other '90s babes were rocking chokers, often velvet, like it was nobody's business.

3. Purple Lipstick

You might think Kylie Jenner is responsible for the purple lipstick you're wearing, but purple, plum, and other dark berry shades of lipstick were just as popular in the '90s.

4. Friends

Thanks to Netflix, you'd think Friends was the hottest new show of 2015. But as we all know, Friends was the hottest new show of 1994.

5. Spin

SoulCycle and spin class are the chicest, trendiest way to work out these days. And that has always been the case. At least since the '90s. Spinning was named the "hottest" exercise of 1993 by Rolling Stone, so sorry to burst your bubble, but your $40 class is a super '90s throwback.

6. Young Adult Fiction

Things like the Hunger Games and Divergent and whatever other series is the next YA sensation might seem new, but Harry Potter was born in the '90s. The '90s also gave us Goosebumps and Babysitter's Club, and other series aimed at young folk that became equal cult classics to the YA that's big now.

7. R'n'B

Thanks to The Wkend and Zayn, some serious R'n'B resurgence is happening. But '90s R'n'B was a very similar/pretty much the same thing. To be honest though, R'n'B is timeless, but the style is similar between now and then.

8. Mom Jeans

Mom jeans were the style du jour of the '90s, as they are today. Every high end brand and high street store has some iteration of the mom jean, but if you're looking for a pair, look no further than your own mom's '90s wardrobe...

9. Flannel

Flannel is ca-ute! Even the Kardashians rock flannel, that's how mainstream and pervasive the trend is now. But in the '90s, we wore just as much flannel, and not just in a Wayne's World dorky way. All the hot babes had flannel shirts tied around their waists, Shannen Doherty-style.

10. IM

You might think of IM as a thing you did in the '90s, but we're still doing it now. Every day. What do you think Facebook chat is? Or your Viber, or What's App apps? IM is just as big now as it was in the '90s, even if you don't recognize it as such.

11. GIFs

If you didn't make a Geocities website with pixellated gifs in the '90s you weren't living right. We LOVED gifs when technology embraced the Internet. And guess what? GIFs are the main thing we use the Internet for now. The GIFs now are obviously not just pixellated dancing devils — they're real, moving pictures of film — but regardless, they're relatively as big now as they were in the '90s.